Many of us know the cost of acquiring a new customer is high. I've LIVED (and written) that, when seeking new customers, it's best to seek people and companies who need what you have as opposed to endlessly following up with people who politely tell you "maybe someday".
Let's talk about customers. Assuming the relationship is on steady ground, you've got something that they need. Sure, they can fire you at any time (and vice versa) but that relationship and revenue stream IS YOUR BUSINESS.
What you have is a level of understanding of their business and, hopefully, a specific and timely remedy or augmentation for their requirements. That's value that you've earned.It doesn't mean they'll always take your call.
Your best prospects BY FAR will always be your customers. Knowing how to manage and grow that relationship is a skillset that companies pay big bucks for. Conversely, Account Managers who do neither get paid for the effort of others who came before them. Constantly "touching base" and stroking customers egos is hardly a skillset. There's a million people on the collective payrolls of corporate America who do little more than that.
Thursday, August 13, 2009
Monday, July 27, 2009
Four Guys and a Shovel
We've all seen this many times.
A smallish Department of Public Works-type road project. There's an excavator. It's usually a fix on a water and sewer line beneath the road and then a repair of said road.
And there, in plain view, is one man working and- at a collective $70 to $100 municipal tax dollars an hour- three others contemplating either E=Mc2 or whether to completely clear the shelves at Krispy Kreme.
This incredible waste is not limited to Public Works projects. Every study ever done on the workplace shows the vast majority of white-collar workers spend most of their salaried hours engaged in everything from "Tweeting" about what Madison said on Facebook to crunching baseball statistics in order to effectively manage their Fantasy Baseball Team. It's brutal.
As with any human problem, the solution seems incredibly obvious but either will never happen or will happen in a time frame in which all vested interests get their pockets lined.
As The Pretender's Chrissy Hynde sang in the little ditty Back on the Chain Gang...Welcome to the Human Ray-eeeee-ace (Race).
A smallish Department of Public Works-type road project. There's an excavator. It's usually a fix on a water and sewer line beneath the road and then a repair of said road.
And there, in plain view, is one man working and- at a collective $70 to $100 municipal tax dollars an hour- three others contemplating either E=Mc2 or whether to completely clear the shelves at Krispy Kreme.
This incredible waste is not limited to Public Works projects. Every study ever done on the workplace shows the vast majority of white-collar workers spend most of their salaried hours engaged in everything from "Tweeting" about what Madison said on Facebook to crunching baseball statistics in order to effectively manage their Fantasy Baseball Team. It's brutal.
As with any human problem, the solution seems incredibly obvious but either will never happen or will happen in a time frame in which all vested interests get their pockets lined.
As The Pretender's Chrissy Hynde sang in the little ditty Back on the Chain Gang...Welcome to the Human Ray-eeeee-ace (Race).
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
Following Up...right off the cliff
Feel like slaughtering a sacred cow today.
Repeatedly following up with a "prospect" who has never bought a thing from you, 98 times out of 100, is a complete waste of time. That time and energy could have been spent trying to find someone who needs what you have right now or VERY soon. Politely bow out and move on.
The follow-up/tickler system file crowd will tell you how that "builds relationships". They'll tell you some stories about people who EVENTUALLY bought from them after months or even years of "touching base". That's horsepoop. They FINALLY bought from you because you FINALLY had something they needed.
Oh, sure, they might think you're a swell person and complimented you on your diligent "following up". Let me ask you this: What if they thought you were a nice person, admired your tenacity in your following up efforts BUT STILL didn't need what you had. Answer: NO SALE.
Relationships are what happens after business has been transacted. That's when everyone has skin in the game.
I'll end the post with the cow motif I started it with..another one of my favorite little maxims:
Stop trying to teach a pig how to sing. Not only are you wasting your time, you're irritating the hell out of the pig.
Repeatedly following up with a "prospect" who has never bought a thing from you, 98 times out of 100, is a complete waste of time. That time and energy could have been spent trying to find someone who needs what you have right now or VERY soon. Politely bow out and move on.
The follow-up/tickler system file crowd will tell you how that "builds relationships". They'll tell you some stories about people who EVENTUALLY bought from them after months or even years of "touching base". That's horsepoop. They FINALLY bought from you because you FINALLY had something they needed.
Oh, sure, they might think you're a swell person and complimented you on your diligent "following up". Let me ask you this: What if they thought you were a nice person, admired your tenacity in your following up efforts BUT STILL didn't need what you had. Answer: NO SALE.
Relationships are what happens after business has been transacted. That's when everyone has skin in the game.
I'll end the post with the cow motif I started it with..another one of my favorite little maxims:
Stop trying to teach a pig how to sing. Not only are you wasting your time, you're irritating the hell out of the pig.
Friday, July 10, 2009
Sky Chair
"You are sitting on a chair in the sky!!!" shrieked a comedian who calls himself Louis CK.
In this four-minute viral Internet video in which he appeared as a guest on the Conan O'Brien show, he humorously ranted about the incredible comforts and conveniences that people enjoy in the modern world. He ranted how we have these wonderful things but we incessantly complain ABOUT EVERYTHING.
(The quotation that begins this blog entry was about his fellow passenger on a commercial jet who got all pissy when the wireless Internet access temporarily ceased working).
The rest of the video short is more of the same and very amusing. Amusing because, like many funny things, it is true. We are living in a 21st century free market democracy, living like Kings but constantly whining like four year olds.
I've have had a front row seat with people very close to me who had real problems. Painful, terminal illness could take the steam out of you, right? Not with the people I'm talking about. They valued everything they had and dealt with what they didn't.
That turnip truck that just took a left onto Nine Mile Road...I didn't just fall off of it. I realize that for virtually everybody, "you don't know what you've got 'till it's gone" (Amazing, as famous as that song is, I challenge anyone to remember who penned and performed it...without Google, jerky)
So, please, remember. As you're sitting on Flight #427 non-stop to Atlanta and you're late because you had to sit on the runway for 25 minutes- not to mention the 800 other ways the world inconvenienced you today- YOU'RE SITTING ON A CHAIR IN THE SKY.
In this four-minute viral Internet video in which he appeared as a guest on the Conan O'Brien show, he humorously ranted about the incredible comforts and conveniences that people enjoy in the modern world. He ranted how we have these wonderful things but we incessantly complain ABOUT EVERYTHING.
(The quotation that begins this blog entry was about his fellow passenger on a commercial jet who got all pissy when the wireless Internet access temporarily ceased working).
The rest of the video short is more of the same and very amusing. Amusing because, like many funny things, it is true. We are living in a 21st century free market democracy, living like Kings but constantly whining like four year olds.
I've have had a front row seat with people very close to me who had real problems. Painful, terminal illness could take the steam out of you, right? Not with the people I'm talking about. They valued everything they had and dealt with what they didn't.
That turnip truck that just took a left onto Nine Mile Road...I didn't just fall off of it. I realize that for virtually everybody, "you don't know what you've got 'till it's gone" (Amazing, as famous as that song is, I challenge anyone to remember who penned and performed it...without Google, jerky)
So, please, remember. As you're sitting on Flight #427 non-stop to Atlanta and you're late because you had to sit on the runway for 25 minutes- not to mention the 800 other ways the world inconvenienced you today- YOU'RE SITTING ON A CHAIR IN THE SKY.
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Dentist the Menace
Talking with a guy I knew who's in the salesforce training business. I ask him what's new in his line of work and he tells me something very interesting.
He said Dentists were his fasting growing clientele.
Think about it for a second. Your a Dentist, a highly-skilled professional. And you know your doing your job well if your clients don't need your services!!
An oversimplification, of course, but there's more than a shred of truth to that statement.
But any Dentist with business sense knows there's A TON of money sitting on the table but they need to tread carefully. Top-notch preventative care, cosmetic procedures and many other things people need done but choose to delay it until their mouth explodes with pain or their teeth look so bad they could walk on the set of "Deliverance II" and immediately be awarded a part.
So hooray for the dental profession to collectively say "..ummm...what's the best way to go about this.."
Timing is a funny thing. It wasn't long after I learned that MY DENTIST decided it was a good idea, without my permission, to send a group TEXT MESSAGE about something entirely irrelevant to me and my particular dental needs. I was on a business call at the time. An inbound text message on my cell phone caused a sound interruption slightly less loud than a nuclear bomb detonation. Extraordinary.
Every time I think the very basics of marketing and sales can be understood by a reasonably intelligent Golden Retriever, something like this happens.
He said Dentists were his fasting growing clientele.
Think about it for a second. Your a Dentist, a highly-skilled professional. And you know your doing your job well if your clients don't need your services!!
An oversimplification, of course, but there's more than a shred of truth to that statement.
But any Dentist with business sense knows there's A TON of money sitting on the table but they need to tread carefully. Top-notch preventative care, cosmetic procedures and many other things people need done but choose to delay it until their mouth explodes with pain or their teeth look so bad they could walk on the set of "Deliverance II" and immediately be awarded a part.
So hooray for the dental profession to collectively say "..ummm...what's the best way to go about this.."
Timing is a funny thing. It wasn't long after I learned that MY DENTIST decided it was a good idea, without my permission, to send a group TEXT MESSAGE about something entirely irrelevant to me and my particular dental needs. I was on a business call at the time. An inbound text message on my cell phone caused a sound interruption slightly less loud than a nuclear bomb detonation. Extraordinary.
Every time I think the very basics of marketing and sales can be understood by a reasonably intelligent Golden Retriever, something like this happens.
Friday, June 19, 2009
I'd Buy That
Just read about a company that is about to get a patent for "anti-mist coatings" and I guess it's a fairly big deal.
If you're anything like me, you have my empathy, because being like me is a permanent stay at the theme park, NeurosisLand. But we have to ask, no different than the feisty investigative Entertainment Tonight reporter, "What in the hell are anti-mist coatings?".
It's something that I'd buy....that's what it is.
For some reason WAY beyond my understanding, nobody has totally figured out how to COMPLETELY rid themselves of unwanted mist(or relatives).
You take a real hot shower, the fan is running at a maniacal pace, what happens when you're done? The mirror is STILL pretty much covered in mist. Did the fan go on a cigarette break, leaving his dimwitted humming-machine friend to cover? Why isn't it working? Another example...the interior of your car. I don't care how expensive the model of your car, when certain exterior and interior atmospheric conditions exist, it's "Play Misty for Me" on your interior windshield. It's alot of fun trying to clear a small viewing area at 60 MPH while you're on a road the width of Scotch tape and an approaching truck the size of a WalMart Supercenter is bearing down on you.
So, apparently, somebody has figured out how to fix this.
And I'm buying.
If you're anything like me, you have my empathy, because being like me is a permanent stay at the theme park, NeurosisLand. But we have to ask, no different than the feisty investigative Entertainment Tonight reporter, "What in the hell are anti-mist coatings?".
It's something that I'd buy....that's what it is.
For some reason WAY beyond my understanding, nobody has totally figured out how to COMPLETELY rid themselves of unwanted mist(or relatives).
You take a real hot shower, the fan is running at a maniacal pace, what happens when you're done? The mirror is STILL pretty much covered in mist. Did the fan go on a cigarette break, leaving his dimwitted humming-machine friend to cover? Why isn't it working? Another example...the interior of your car. I don't care how expensive the model of your car, when certain exterior and interior atmospheric conditions exist, it's "Play Misty for Me" on your interior windshield. It's alot of fun trying to clear a small viewing area at 60 MPH while you're on a road the width of Scotch tape and an approaching truck the size of a WalMart Supercenter is bearing down on you.
So, apparently, somebody has figured out how to fix this.
And I'm buying.
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Chuck Dickens
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.
Someone please summons Mr. Charley Dickens because many have been searching for the former lately with not much success. I, myself, was looking amongst and beneath the couch cushions for better days/daze and came up snake eyes. I did find, however, close to $1.80 in change and enough food parts to feed the entire population of Barbados for three weeks. Which brings me to this Post.
The Cosmic Arbiter sure dealt me and almost everyone I know one helluva good hand. And that includes the unemployed, the underemployed and the people who think their boss makes Joseph Stalin seem like "a decent enough guy".
As someone told me once, not only do I have a better quality of life than the VAST majority of the living on the planet, I have a better life than 99.999% of ALL THE PEOPLE WHO EVER LIVED. Put that in your pipe and smoke it, Captain CrankyPants.
Not only do I have immediate access to hundreds of things that make my life more comfortable but I am also at arms length to hundreds of things-both needful and necessary- that even Kings and Queens didn't have as recently as 100 years ago.
We all need these self reality checks from time-to-time. There's a good chance your net worth is considerably less than it was five years ago. Your business went belly-up. That vacation is definitely NOT happening this summer. Your teenage children are possessed by some deranged poltergeist who instructs them to only stare blankly at electronic media and say the word "like" roughly 16 times per sentence.
I feel ya, bro and it's easy to get pissy about things...especially lately.
Without sounding like some charged up, self-help Super Sage on an Infomercial, the next time you work yourself up into A LATHER (ya know, like, later today), spend about 30 seconds thinking about what you HAVE as opposed to what you don't. Got it there, Jerky?
Let's look at a live case study.
My day today, in the vernacular of 18th century England, "sucked wicked bad". But I'm going to have a nice home-cooked meal this evening, fart around with my 7 year old son in the backyard, watch a good chunk of the Sox game on the tube, sleep in my comfy king-sized bed and then, tomorrow morning, unleash an uninterrupted stream of expletives as I ponder the incredible injustice of Boston traffic as it relates to my life. I'm kidding. The "No Whining Rule" will be strictly enforced, starting tomorrow, regardless of how the Sox fare tonight.
Someone please summons Mr. Charley Dickens because many have been searching for the former lately with not much success. I, myself, was looking amongst and beneath the couch cushions for better days/daze and came up snake eyes. I did find, however, close to $1.80 in change and enough food parts to feed the entire population of Barbados for three weeks. Which brings me to this Post.
The Cosmic Arbiter sure dealt me and almost everyone I know one helluva good hand. And that includes the unemployed, the underemployed and the people who think their boss makes Joseph Stalin seem like "a decent enough guy".
As someone told me once, not only do I have a better quality of life than the VAST majority of the living on the planet, I have a better life than 99.999% of ALL THE PEOPLE WHO EVER LIVED. Put that in your pipe and smoke it, Captain CrankyPants.
Not only do I have immediate access to hundreds of things that make my life more comfortable but I am also at arms length to hundreds of things-both needful and necessary- that even Kings and Queens didn't have as recently as 100 years ago.
We all need these self reality checks from time-to-time. There's a good chance your net worth is considerably less than it was five years ago. Your business went belly-up. That vacation is definitely NOT happening this summer. Your teenage children are possessed by some deranged poltergeist who instructs them to only stare blankly at electronic media and say the word "like" roughly 16 times per sentence.
I feel ya, bro and it's easy to get pissy about things...especially lately.
Without sounding like some charged up, self-help Super Sage on an Infomercial, the next time you work yourself up into A LATHER (ya know, like, later today), spend about 30 seconds thinking about what you HAVE as opposed to what you don't. Got it there, Jerky?
Let's look at a live case study.
My day today, in the vernacular of 18th century England, "sucked wicked bad". But I'm going to have a nice home-cooked meal this evening, fart around with my 7 year old son in the backyard, watch a good chunk of the Sox game on the tube, sleep in my comfy king-sized bed and then, tomorrow morning, unleash an uninterrupted stream of expletives as I ponder the incredible injustice of Boston traffic as it relates to my life. I'm kidding. The "No Whining Rule" will be strictly enforced, starting tomorrow, regardless of how the Sox fare tonight.
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